Johnny Webber – Page 2 – Johnny Webber 🔥

💭 Some Thoughts, 2023-05-06

Every city should have a food market like Philly’s Reading Terminal.
I’ve started adding Cholula to the vinaigrette I make for salads. *Chef’s kiss.*
If you’re feeling down, go to the gym and workout. Instant mood booster.
Kevin Kelly believes YouTube is an underrated educational resource, and I completely agree. You can get a sort of pseudo apprenticeship on any subject by watching master craftsmen do their work.
I really enjoyed the movie Bullet Train. It’s action-packed and completely ridiculous. A great way to pass a plane flight.

An interactive look at the dodgy subscription practices of popular digital services. [🔗 pudding.cool]
A list of photographs considered the most important. [🔗 wikipedia.org]
The food disgust test. [🔗 idrlabs.com]
A feed of only the most significant news stories as determined by AI. [🔗 newsminimalist.com]
An a(door)able game. [🔗 ncase.me]

I spent a little over a year in Europe. The first thing that stuck out on my return to the States was the excess of billboards lining the freeways. Capitalism run amok.
My biggest hurdle to posting regularly online is the idea that what I’m writing isn’t worth sharing. The default needs to be to post now, edit (or delete) later.
A goal for any future yard I have is to get it registered as a monarch waystation.
Be selective of the content you consume. Rage bait is everywhere.
Exercising and reading are both good for me and things I enjoy doing. I should better prioritize those activities.

For the next few weeks, I’ll be in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Here are a few activities on my to-do list:

Visit Reading Terminal, eat a pretzel.
Visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
History stuff: Independence Hall, Ben Franklin Museum, Portrait Gallery in the Second Bank. Skip the Liberty Bell.
Go to a Phillies game.
Spend a day in Fairmount Park.
Make a weekend trip to NYC.
Make a weekend trip to DC.
Eat a roast pork sandwich, either from John’s Roast Pork or Tommy DiNic’s.
Eat a cheesesteak, but not from Pat’s or Geno’s.
Watch: Rocky.
Read: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

A database of AI incidents. [🔗 incidentdatabase.ai]
A template for creating quick reviews of movies to share online with others. [🔗 quickreviews.app]
A timeline of CIA atrocities. [🔗 huppi.com]
Infinite suggestions of high-quality videos, organized by topic. [🔗 wikivisually.com]
An experimental, open-source application that uses GPT-4 to autonomously accomplish whatever task you set before it. [🔗 github.com]
A daily guessing game where you have to figure out the location in which various pictures were taken in the United States. [🔗 pudding.cool]

An archive of 500 of the most interesting Wikipedia articles. [🔗 endwalker.com]
Recommendations for a happy life. [🔗 jimwestergren.com]
For those who have seen Banshees of Inisherin, you can now play this Pacman-like game. Warning: spoilers. [🔗 bansheesthegame.com]
A master list of recipe websites, organized by cuisine. [🔗 github.com]
Tyler Cowen is a well-cultured economics professor, as well as a podcast host and blogger. Tyler has written a series of posts over at Marginal Revolution detailing his favorite things related to several locations. Here is a compilation of those lists. [🔗 erikgahner.dk]

I spent the first quarter of 2022 living in Florence, Italy. Here are my notes:

I recommend visiting in the shoulder or off-season (I was there from January to April). The weather is mild, and there aren’t as many tourists as in the summertime.
We stayed in the neighborhood of San Frediano. I recommend it for long-term stays. The neighborhood is populated by locals, but still within walking distance of the city center. I also like the Santo Spirito neighborhood, but it’s much more touristy.
The Mercato Centrale is the place to go if you need a break from traditional Italian food.
Walk through the Piazza della Signoria after dark. The statues and buildings are beautiful to view in the moonlight. And you won’t have to jostle with tour groups for space.
The Duomo is the most stunning building I have ever seen. Buy tickets to go up the dome and down to the crypts. Make sure you visit the Opera del Duomo Museum. It’s well worth it.
My two favorite places to read a book are in Parco di Villa Strozzi and on the Pescaia di Santa Rosa.
Speaking of books, the trains are a great place to get reading done. Make the time to visit Siena, San Gimignano, Bologna, and/or Cinque Terre while in the area.
The pasta and pizza are amazing, but I miss the gelato most. Gelateria La Carraia is spectacular.

‘Tis the season for “best of” lists. Below are notable lists featuring the best books of 2022.